Eggs Bene Bites & SuperAwesome Superbowl Sliders #2

What do you do with 40 quail eggs? Before we answer that question (as though the picture or the title doesn’t already give you a big enough clue), perhaps we should explain how we came to be in possession of 40 quail eggs. A recent appetizer party invitation started the creative juices flowing again…what to bring?

What immediately came to mind were all of the gauche plates of food that we would not be bringing; deviled eggs, pigs in a blanket, vienna sausages, broiled pineapple and hot dog skewers, stuffed celery, Swedish meatballs, spinach dip in rye bread and don’t forget the fondue station!

Maybe chicken livers wrapped in bacon and roasted in the oven? Not on my watch! Cheese and crackers? Too passe. How about Totino’s pizza rolls? (love ‘em, but more was expected than an oven reheat-able)

Appetizers are really about creating that perfect bite of food. A mouth full of flavor in a single bite, no need to lick your fingers, just a gentle wiping on your napkin in a gesture of refined elegance and you are ready to move on to the next little morsel of tastiness! That’s what brought us to our little epiphany…

How many times do you see breakfast items as appetizers? Barring the whole Jim Gaffigan “Hot Pockets” routine, breakfast is not something you typically associate with appetizers. And, what better to represent breakfast in appetizer form than Eggs Benedict! Go ahead, let the questioning and the mockery begin now, but be forewarned…it’s much easier than you might think!

So, with a loaf of good Italian bread (filone) in hand, along with some prosciutto, 40 quail eggs, a half a lemon and some fresh dill we went off into the kitchen to create our Eggs Bene Bites. The best part of all, you can stack these on top of a small burger and you now have SuperAwesome Superbowl Slider #2. A delicious and unique spin on two great originals; burgers and eggs benedict.

We’ll even give you the recipe for our own Hollandaise sauce! (for the record, the plate was empty long before all of the guests had arrived!)

What you need:

quail eggs (you decide how many)

filone bread (one loaf will make approximately 25 slices of toast)

prosciutto (4 ounces should be plenty)

fresh lemon

tabasco

sweet cream butter (you’ll salt it yourself)

regular eggs (at least one)

raw cane sugar

apple cider vinegar

Directions

If making Eggs Bene Bites rather than SuperAwesome Superbowl Sliders, trim crust off of filone bread before toasting. If doing sliders, leave crust on and simply slice bread.

Toast bread and then tear of portions of prosciutto and lay on top of toast. Place all toast pieces with prosciutto on a platter in preparation for eggs.

Place 4 cups of water and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar in a pot on stove and bring to simmer and then back off heat so that there is no roiling water.

Take a paring knife in one hand and a quail egg in the other and gently but firmly cut the pointy end off of the egg shell so that you can pour the egg out of the shell and into the pot of water. Do this with 3 to 5 eggs at a time. Pull eggs out approximately 15 seconds after the white has fully set. The yolks will still be soft & runny.

Place one egg on each toast & prosciutto piece on the platter until all toasts have an egg. Set your oven on warm, place aluminum foil over the platter and place the platter in the oven.

Now it’s time to make the Hollandaise!

Take two regular chicken eggs, separate the yolk from the white. Save the yolk, discard the white.

Place the two yolks into a bowl that fits nicely on top of the pot you were using to poach the quail eggs (think double boiler style). Add 3 Tbsp. raw cane sugar to egg yolks and whisk together until sugar is totally melted. It may help to place the bowl on the poaching pot for 15 seconds or so, just to warm the bottom of the bowl and help the sugar melt into the yolk.

Add 5 dashes of Tabasco, 2 pinches of Bolivian Rose and 1 pinch of Black Truffle salt and whisk again. Take one full stick of butter (one quarter pound) and cut it into 1/4” pats. Place 4 pats at a time into the bowl and place the bowl back on to the poaching pot, allowing the double boiler style heat to melt the butter into the egg yolk, sugar and Tabasco mixture. Continue whisking until all butter is melted adding 4 pats at a time until all butter has been incorporated.

Remove from heat and squeeze the juice of one half lemon into the sauce and whisk thoroughly. Taste sauce and add salt, Tabasco, sugar or lemon juice to taste. If sauce seems too thick add butter 2 pats at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Once Hollandaise is finished, spoon small amounts over each quail egg toast bite on the aforementioned platter, finely chop fresh dill, sprinkle over entire platter and serve!

Placing this combination on a small slider style burger is, in a word….offthehook!